The combines reckoning
by Tlaloc Amnell
Summary: The Combines Reckoning is a small story with my character Tlaloc and a few others who get sent back in time to City 17.


Jonah Raymond

The Combine's Reckoning

The aftermath:

Three years after the defeat of the Combine, "In the city," The comedian began, "you must fight to survive, he sold tortillas on the corner, and the mob wanted in!" "No matter how many times I hear that, it never gets old!" My friend, Kay said through her laughs. Oh right, my name, sorry about that, my name is Tlaloc and I'm a hybrid species, I am part cat, bird, and Mobian echidna. My friend Kay is a purebred Mobian cat, no she is not related in any way to Blaze the cat, or she is in some way… I don't know. Her silver eyes sparkled, "You do know," I said, "that he's probably dead?" At that exact moment a knock came to the door. "Hey, let me in! I need to talk to you!" Kay and I looked at each other, "Fine Sam, come on in." I said, "Friggin finally!" he said, "I waited out there for hours." He was wearing his specialized Darkness H.E.V. suit, oh man another thing I forgot to tell you, we all had H.E.V. suits, I had the Infinity suit, little to no damage is taken by small arms fire and it would take 50 direct hits, all fired at the same time, from an RPG to damage me by one hit point, Kay had the Mark 10 H.E.V. suit, made out of a Titanium-Chrome-Stainless Steel-Iron mix, not as strong as the Infinity suit but strong nonetheless. Sam was equipping my suit with newer E.M.P. resistant armor plating, in the past it could be shorted out by E.M.P., E.M.P. stands for electromagnetic pulse for the people who don't understand, man I'm forgetting things right and left, anyway Sam was finishing the suit and Kay and I were watching, "Almost finished…Okay, done!" "Sweet, let me try it on." As soon as I was fully equipped I came out and showed my friends who had re-equipped their H.E.V. suits, "Well? What do you think?" "Looks good." Sam said, "My work better not have been for nothing, try not to die okay?" "I'll try not to." Next thing I saw was a flash of light.

Point Insertion:

"What the hell was that?" Asked Sam, after that happened, then I noticed I was really warm, "I'm overheating and I really don't know or care," I said, taking off the chestplate and helmet of my suit, "but we might not be in Arizona, this looks far too much like city 17, but city 17 is a burned out crater, this looks like a normal town, and that looks like a citadel…SHIT! Get down!" Sam, Kay, and I dove behind a crate, "How is Civil Protection still here?" Kay asked, "I have no idea but they won't be here for long," I said, checking how much crossbow ammo I had, "I'm going to make sure of that." And to punctuate my sentence I slapped the rebar into the crossbow, which immediately heated to 150 degrees F, "If I'm not back in 50 seconds, which most likely won't happen, run." I snuck out from behind the crate, walked forward, weapon at the ready, and shot twice. The first hit the officer in the head, but the second missed, I knew I had to act fast otherwise it was all over, no time to reload I switched to my AR2 and hit the alternative fire, an energy sphere sprang to life and hit the remaining officer who somehow managed to shoot before his death, my chestplate wasn't on, it was by my friends, the bullet hit my ribcage and bounced off into the street, my skeletal structure was augmented to take extreme punishment, such as three cars welded on top of each other landing on me, before even getting a hairline fracture, but anyway, this is what I screamed when it happened, "AAHH! MY GODDAMNED RIB, HOLY SHIT!" "Stay still and let me see!" Kay said, "Sissy." Sam said, "You said you had Kevlar on underneath that chestplate, where is it?" "Check in the chestplate dumbfuck." I said, "Oh I see. But why'd you take it off?" "I told you, I was overheating, it must have come off with the chestplate." I put the chestplate back on. My suit locked together, "Thank you, for activating the H.E.V. Infinity suit, designed for special warfare and handling hazardous materials," The suit's A.I., Tiamat, said, "health monitor: online, anti-venom injectors: online, morphine injectors: online, ammunition counters: online, power monitors: online, auxiliary power sources: online, impact reactive armor systems: online, all systems: functioning at optimal capacity, awaiting user command." "Tiamat," I said, "manual activation." "Of what system or systems?" "Shield-emitters, external communications, and bio-monitoring of other H.E.V. suits." "Confirmed, bringing online." The amount of shield power projected onto my HUD, communications was activated and linked to my mic., and the bio-signs of my friends came online, along with one more, "What the hell?" I breathed, "But he's supposed to be dead. How?" "How what Tlaloc?" Sam asked, "It's Freeman, he's alive, and he's coming closer. RUN! We don't want a temporal paradox to occur!" We jumped onto the ladder and climbed over the fence just in time, "That was close," I said, "Let's get…" "A little warning next time would be appreciated Tlaloc." Kay said, "Fine, run, he's nearing our position." We ran breathlessly towards a building that looked inconspicuous, "Okay as soon as we get in here activate your camouflage." "Alright." "Got it."

A red letter day:

Just as we activated it he came and got ambushed, "Wow that's pitiful." I said just as Alyx knocked the civil protection officers senseless, "Okay let's follow them." As we entered the room that housed these two tanks of orange liquid my active camouflage flickered off then a split second later on again, "What was that?" Alyx asked, "What?" Asked Barney Calhoun, then a shot rang out and my camouflage, along with the others whose active camo generators were linked to mine, shut down, "Hey! Who are you?" Alyx asked, "Shit!" I muttered under my breath, "We're former Black Mesa employees." "Well, I've never seen an H.E.V. suit like any of those, what models are they?" "I have a military model, it's called the Infinity suit, this guy here has the Darkness suit, and she has the Mark 10 H.E.V. suit." I knew that saying the model of Kay's suit would be inviting trouble but I didn't know what else it would bring, fascination, "My god, this is amazing, why are you wearing that headgear?" Kliener asked, "You would too if being killed by a headcrab was about at the top of your awareness list." "I see." "It also allows me to monitor the bio-signs of everyone that has an H.E.V. suit, and it comes with an onboard motion sensor." "Remarkable…What is the power supply?" "A miniature fusion reactor powers the auxiliary power and some of the main power but it needs a charge to activate." "There is a Combine energy outlet over here, but first, let Gordon charge his suit." "Alright I'll let him." After he had finished, "Just one spark is enough to start the reactor and allow the suit to accept the reactors power." I went up to the charger, "Not much left," I hit the button and next thing that happened was a popping sound and static flared across my viewscreen, "that wasn't supposed to happen. Oh, wait, reactor's on, nevermind." I let out a sigh of relief, "Tiamat, activate HUD, location: Glasses." "Confirmed, helmet removal safe." I took my helmet off and instantly regretted it, "What in the name of god is that?" Kliener asked, "It's my head, got a problem with that?" "Good god." Alyx said, "Why did I even take the helmet off?" I said underneath my breath, "Hey," I heard Sam say, "don't beat yourself up about it." "I had to get some air, I switched my HUD to my glasses, and I took the helmet off. Oh yeah that's right, Alyx, Kliener, you know how Gordon doesn't need a helmet? Well I can take mine off and still have my H.E.V. suit activated." "Great Scott!" "Well this is all very interesting but can we get to the point?" Kay put in, "Oh yes, you're right, this way." "It's a wall, you expect us to walk through it?" "Watch," He straightened a photo and an eye scanner came out of a pillar near the wall, "Oh, I see." I said, "Let me guess, the wall is a blast door right?" "Correct." Kliener replied, and he proceeded to use the eye scanner. Inside the room there was a big machine, "Let me guess again," I said, "teleportation device?" "Well, yes, but how did you know?" Kliener asked, "Museum has one in it." I won't bore you with the small events but as Gordon, Sam, Kay, and I stepped into the teleporter and were about to transition when Lamarr, Klieners pet headcrab, broke through a vent and yanked some wires from the teleporter when she fell, "What was that?" Kliener asked, "It's your pet, the fricking headhumper!" Barney yelled, "Lamarr, Hedy, no!" Kliener yelled. Another flash of light occurred and we were, temporarily, teleported to different places, beginning with a desert, next was at Black Mesa East, "He's coming through dad." "We're losing them." Then we were teleported to the citadel's interior, "What is the meaning of this?" a voice from Black Mesa said, Dr. Wallace Breen, then we were teleported to the lab again, "What's going on, we just lost them?" Alyx asked, "I wish I knew, I'm encountering unexpected interference." Kliener said, "That's it, I'm getting them out of there." Barney said, "No! You can't wade into the field, it will peel you apart!" Kliener yelled, then we teleported above part of a body of water, as we fell into it we saw some sort of creature, just before we were killed, we teleported onto the balcony outside of klieners window, "But where are they?" He asked, "Behind you." Eli replied, "AAH!" "Shut it down, shut it down!" "You must get out of here, run!" "I'll meet up with you later." Barney said, then the portal shut off, "Any ideas to what that creature was?" I asked, "Nope." Sam said, "Nada." Kay said, and Gordon just shrugged.

Route Canal:

"Hang on, I got him…" I said, about to snipe a Combine officer, "Don't miss." A voice next to me said, "SHIT!" I screamed as I jumped, involuntarily I pulled the trigger when I jumped and the shot went high, "Damn it Sam! I had him! Just one inch down and he would have died." "No problem, anytime." He said, laughing, "Just you wait Sam, when you try to snipe someone I'll do that to you and see if you like it. Dumbass." We had made it through the canal, mostly without incident, well, if, by incident, you don't mean nearly being eaten by barnacles, three times, but we had gotten to an area mostly peaceful, despite the carpet bombing, and the Hunter-Chopper on our asses, but you get the drift, "One shot left, thanks Sam, don't scare me now or I'll miss and we all die." I said, "Sure." I sighted through the scope, turned the safety off, and went into that sort of Zen, sniping state of mind, where you can possibly squeeze off that one shot of a lifetime, and you become the bringer of death, "Wait till you get the shot, count your heartbeats, 1, 2, 3!" I fired, lo and behold a spray of blood came from the cockpit of the copter and it took a nose-dive into the water, right on top of five barrels, and exploded, "YES! YEAH!" I screamed, "That was awesome!" Then I realized, I probably gave away our position, "Shit! Sorry about that, adrenaline rush." At that moment I thanked god that they could not see me blushing through my helmet, "Well, that was random." Kay said, "Let's just get out of here." I said, "Explosive charge on the doors, or use the switch, please be the explosives?" "None left." Sam said, "Fuck. Well I'll get the switch." "Race ya." Sam replied, I answered him by opening my wings to their full length, "You'll fail, again." I flew over to the control booth while he was walking to the area, "I'm going to lie down and rest my eyes a bit," I said through the comm. link, "Just, a bit, further." He said over the comm. unit in his suit, "Okay screw it I'm up." I said as I got up and saw he was almost there, "Well, you tried." I said as I flipped the switch and locked it, "You, suck." Sam said breathlessly, "Hey, try the ladder next time, saves a lot of energy." "Fuck, you, Tlaloc." "Hey, just doing my job, asshole." "If you two are done projecting over the comm. systems, we'd like to get done with this." Kay interrupted, "Oops, come on Sam, I'll carry you." I said, knowing his bio-signs right now wouldn't help if he died getting to the rendezvous.

Black Mesa East:

"Okay we've got something, one's human, can you hear me? Stay calm. Doctor Freeman? Gordon Freeman?" Okay I'm going to skip her dialogue because it's going to take forever, and most of it isn't even important, and I want to get to the part with the junkyard. Anyway, after we entered the junkyard, we, Sam, Kay, and I, saw what was, to us, a priceless antique in mint condition, "Is that, the gravity gun?" I asked, in awe, "Sure is." Replied Alyx, "It was originally intended for handling hazardous materials, but we mainly use it for heavy lifting, try it out." "We've got gravity gloves." "What?" Alyx asked, "Gravity gloves, just look." I put them on and this happened, I was aiming at a crate and something caught my eye, "What the Hell?" I said, aiming at the new object, which turned out to be a faceplate to an H.E.V. charger, "Sweet, I'm keeping this, might come in handy." I said, not knowing that it would be one thing keeping me alive in Ravenholm. Then Alyx said, "Here, let me call DOG." As soon as she said that, a machine came from an extremely large dog house, "Guys this is DOG. Dad built him to protect me when I was young, first model was about, yea high, I've been adding to him ever since. Haven't I boy?" "Nice, this looks a lot like something I saw in the museum." "But, he's only fifteen years old." "The exhibit was twenty three years old and that was three years after the defeat of the Combine and…Oh, right, that hasn't happened yet." "Scanners! The Combine's sweeping the area!" Alyx yelled out suddenly, I turned around and just as I got a look, I got shot by a Hunter-Chopper, which, unfortunately, was one of the few things that could kill me, "SHIT!" I screamed, watching my shields go down, I dove to the side and ran back to the airlock and barely got in with them before it closed, "Dad, dad!" Alyx screamed at a communications unit, "Alyx! Where are you, are they all with you?" Eli said, "Yes they're right here." "Good, I want you to…" The screen filled with static, "Dad?" "…Get them out of here! Head for the Coast! Do not go through Raven…" The screen filled with static and winked out, "Dad? Dad!" Alyx screamed, "Damnit! DOG get us out of here!" He started slamming the doors with his fists, "Tear them apart if you have to, just get us out of here!" As soon as the opening in the door was wide enough I crawled through and Sam and Kay followed, "That's enough DOG!" Alyx said, "Come on Gordon!" Kay, Sam, and I ran down the tunnel to Ravenholm when we heard a crashing sound from the hallway that Alyx, Gordon, and DOG went through, it looked as if we were going through Ravenholm.

We don't go to Ravenholm:

As soon as DOG came into view he rushed to the blast doors heading to Ravenholm, "Took you long enough." Sam said as DOG lifted the door, "Don't say anything." I said, "We might not be alone." I gestured down the corridor. "We'd better get going, the Combine could catch up to us at any second." As soon as we entered the tunnel DOG let go of the door, "DOG!" I screamed, he whined, at least, I think he's a male…nevermind, pitifully, "Crap." I said in a small voice as my eyes widened, I had seen it and my eyes were screaming at my brain and beating it to a pulp, it was a zombie, I had only seen one and this looked way different, the skin was peeled off and nowhere to be found, the muscle was exposed, the guts were rotting away, and the skull was exposed, "I think I almost threw up, no, wait, MOVE!" I completely lost it, and I mean completely, I doubled over and it was like a flood of acid just went through my throat into the world, "Ooohh, Goddamned body." I moaned hoarsely, "Wow, Tlaloc, are you all right?" Sam asked, "You never get sick like that." "That is what it takes, to make me vomit that forcefully." I said, still doubled over waiting for the aftershock, "Oh crap." I managed just before the dry heaves hit me. "Let's get going before we're caught." I said, breaking the lock with the gravity gloves and giving us access to the ladder, "I also don't want to be near that body anymore." I said within the confines of my helmet, "What was that Tlaloc? Did you say something?" Sam asked, "I said nothing, you sure it wasn't Kay?" I replied, "Wasn't me. What about Gordon?" She said, "I was silent even before Sam said that so don't blame me." He said, much to our surprise, "Gordon, I was convinced that you couldn't talk." "Well, of course I can talk, I just prefer not to." "Nevermind, let's just get going." I said. I activated my shield and almost immediately after I got hit by a zombie, "FUUUUUCCCCCCCCCCCCKKKK!!!!!" I screamed, and immediately eviscerated it when my claws came through my gloves, my claws are made of red tiberium, interestingly enough. "Damn it! These things come out of nowhere!" I said. Afterwards, we continued on, not caring where, but still going nonetheless. "And they shall be like dust before the wind, and may the angel of the lord pursue them." A voice said, "Wow, I thought Ravenholm was abandoned, apparently not." I said, after hearing the voice, "Let's continue." Kay said. So after that we passed through the sawmill area, I picked up a blade and put it in my equipment for later, then I saw the trap, "Wow, talk about ingenuity." I said, the trap was an engine with a steel plate sharpened with serrated edges spinning around in an endless circle, "Crouch and go under or run through and pray… oh, right, Gordon would die, so crouch it is." I went under first and hit a switch and the thing turned off, "Well, that was damn lucky."

FLASHBACK:

"_Tlaloc, get up we need to run a few more tests!" "But Magnusson, I'm tired!" "Bah!" "All right all right I'll do it, but I won't be happy." "Fake it then!"_

END FLASHBACK:

"Whoa!" I screamed as I nearly fell back into the reactivated (somehow) trap, "Help!" "I got you" Gordon said as he caught me.


End file.
